Amphibians of the Netherlands Antilles Islands?

[John]

Does anyone know what species of amphibian are found on the Netherlands Antilles Islands in the Caribbean? I will be visiting a few in a few months and I would like to be in the know. I am aware there is at least one loud tree frog species (I've heard it over the phone), but I don't know the species name.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Mark]

Just the two frogs by the looks of it.
http://www.amphibiaweb.org/cgi-bin/...erbyaw=Order&where-isocc=Netherlands+Antilles

 

[gr33neyes]

http://www.globalamphibians.org/index.html

John is this any help?

 

[John]

Thanks guys. Global Amphibians say just 1 species actually. I'm not sure how Amphibia Web says 2, considering the info is coming from Global Amphibians for both sites.

 

[ajc]

I'll let you know after I've watched Life in Cold Blood in about ... ohhh ... an hour from now ;-)
(Presumably, you'll be too busy watching SuperBowlTuesday, or whatever it's called, to join me?

 

[lims]

nice

nice little frog, I'm going to Martinique in May to do some diving and stay free of charge at my GF's dads Bar,, I think I'll be a huntin for Eleutherodactylus johnstonei while I'm there, cant wait..

 

[John]

I'll let you know after I've watched Life in Cold Blood in about ... ohhh ... an hour from now ;-)
(Presumably, you'll be too busy watching SuperBowlTuesday, or whatever it's called, to join me?

I'll be too busy running this site . My father is DVD'ing Life in Cold Blood for me (shhh don't tell anyone).

 

[John]

nice little frog, I'm going to Martinique in May to do some diving and stay free of charge at my GF's dads Bar,, I think I'll be a huntin for Eleutherodactylus johnstonei while I'm there, cant wait..

I hope you have fun. I'll be on St. Martin (Spelling?) and Saba. My wife is a diving freak.

 

[Mark]

I'll be too busy running this site . My father is DVD'ing Life in Cold Blood for me (shhh don't tell anyone).

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the transmission party in Bristol with the production team. I briefly chatted to David about frogs but I was too awestruck to mention newts (or your fathers DVD activities...). It was a wonderful occasion. I can't wait for the amphibian episode next week.

 

[John]

... but I was too awestruck to mention newts ...

*Falls down writhing on the floor in an apparent fit brought on by an overload of incredulity*

 

[John]

Alright I've recovered. Why on earth didn't you mention newts at all? Have you truly become a frog man???

 

[John]

Please tell Sue that she should tell Sir David we need a sequel to the Immortal Salamander. If they're strapped for cash then there's always Mark Staniszewski's back garden.

 

[robkeulers]

I've been in Curacao about 2 year ago. This litle Pleurodema brachyops lived on the beach, just 50 meters from the shoreline. They're easy to find because they were in large numbers.

 

[robkeulers]

something went wrong with the pics, here they are!




ps. http://www.mina.vomil.an/Pubs/Buurt-AmphiReps2.html (DUTCH) says that the bufo marinus also inhabits the islands.

The site also says that several species of Eleutherodactylus were imported into the islands, on purpose, or by accident, traveling with plants etc. Eleutherodactylus johnstonei is the only known species of that genera that stayed

 

[lims]

my GF says their is lots of little frogs that I have to not step on and quite a few huge toads...

Wikepedia speaks of an endemc volcano frog,, Colostethus chalcopis, in martinique, hmmmm...

This article has lots of Antilles Islands frogs:

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...45&prev=/images?q=Colostethus+chalcopis&hl=en

 

[lims]

Field work in the summer of 1990 on Martinique, French Antilles, led to the discovery of a new species of Colostethus (Anura: Dendrobatidae). The new species is a small (snout-vent length <20 mm), brown frog which can easily be identified by its distinct ventral coloration. The venter is a uniform pale orange in life, with males having a dark throat and a black collar covering the entire hyoid region. Toe webbing is reduced to barely perceptible vestigial webbing between toes III and IV. The species has a crepuscular activity cycle and a distinctive, high-pitched call. Its habitat is restricted to the upper slopes of Montagne Pelee on the island of Martinique in the central Lesser Antilles. Its discovery is remarkable because it was not recognized previously on this otherwise herpetologically well-known island, and because it is the only known member of the frog family Dendrobatidae endemic to an oceanic island.

 

[John]

So I went to Saba, I saw and I photographed. I'll post some tomorrow. It turns out there are at least 2 species of frog on that island, and I suspect from the calls I heard that there are actually 3. I have photos of at least one species, possibly two (they look very similar and I only think they are different because of the different calls I followed when tracking them down).

Here's an MP3 sound recording of at least 2 of the frogs, possibly 3? There's a species in the background (sort of a weh-weh-weh sound) and then there's whistling in the foreground (what I had the sound recorder pointed at). There may be another call there too, lower like a plink. Any thoughts? I'll post photos tomorrow. There's Johnston's Whistling Frog (the one you guys linked earlier in the thread ) and possibly a species of Coqui on the island too. The third call is a mystery to me. And to top it all, the two frogs I found with very different calls look nearly identical.

By the way I believe this it the first sound recording of amphibians posted on the forum ever?

 

[John]

Just to clarify that first recording, here are the whistles a little more on their own and also the "weh" frogs on their own:

 

[John]

So after a bit more research I believe the whistle is Johnston's Whistling Frog (the amphibiaweb call description matches in my opinion). The weh-ing frogs have to be a different species though since that call is undeniably completely different. The good news is I have great photos of both of these species.

 

[lims]

can't wait to see the photos, I remember hearing the Johnstones whistling frog when I was in Antigua as a teen, the sound made me remember bits from the holiday (best bit was when I had a gecko in my hair).
The mp3's are great aswell, you can get microphones that are good quality that just plug into an ipod and record straight to mp3, maybe you used one of those. I should be going to Martinique in May, will most certainly try to get as much herping from that as I can.